Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.820 · Chapter 2. Judicial Arbitration
Communication with the arbitrator
Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
(a) Disclosure of settlement offers prohibited
No disclosure of any offers of settlement made by any party may be made to the arbitrator prior to the filing of the award.
(b) Ex parte communication prohibited
An arbitrator must not initiate, permit, or consider any ex parte communications or consider other communications made to the arbitrator outside the presence of all of the parties concerning a pending arbitration, except as follows:
(1) An arbitrator may communicate with a party in the absence of other parties about administrative matters, such as setting the time and place of hearings or making other arrangements for the conduct of the proceedings, as long as the arbitrator reasonably believes that the communication will not result in a procedural or tactical advantage for any party. When such a discussion occurs, the arbitrator must promptly inform the other parties of the communication and must give the other parties an opportunity to respond before making any final determination concerning the matter discussed.
(2) An arbitrator may initiate or consider any ex parte communication when expressly authorized by law to do so.
Notes and commentary — not rule text
History
(Subd (a) amended and relettered effective January 1, 2004; adopted as part of unlettered subd.)
(Subd (b) amended effective January 1, 2007; adopted as part of unlettered subd; previously amended and lettered effective January 1, 2004.)
Rule 3.820 amended and renumbered effective January 1, 2007; adopted as rule 1609 effective July 1, 1976; previously amended and renumbered as rule 1610 effective January 1, 2004.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
- Official file
- https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/three/rule3_820
- Text hash
- sha256 c8e56d630d5c90bd5928085a6285c3a1e03190d131845a4e03bec07b8c175393
- Composed by
- compose_crc.py 2026-10-22: the Judicial Council's rule pages read paragraph by paragraph; verify_crc.py's second reading of the Council's per-title PDFs finds every paragraph
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.